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25th July 2017

The venue for Society meetings has changed and the directions to it given on p. 126 of the July 2017 issue are incorrect. Meetings are held at the Hall of St. Botolph’s Church, Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TL. The Hall is set in a small garden behind the church, less than 2 minutes’ walk from Liverpool St. mainline and underground stations.

This week, a superb multi-solution helpmate, by a master of the genre. No clues, but
once you have found the five solutions, look for the cyclic pattern they form!
Don’t forget that Black moves first in a helpmate.

Analysing these further, we note that each white piece is captured in one solution,
gives mate in another solution, and assists in the mate in the other three
solutions. Furthermore, there is a cyclic pattern to the captures and mates: the
piece which mates in solution one is captured in solution two, the piece which
mates in solution two is captured in solution three, etc. Finally, the piece which
mates in solution five is captured in solution one. In summary, we have a fivefold
cyclic Zilahi – “an astonishing achievement with 12 units”, as
John Rice put it in The Problemist, September 1996.

Any comments or questions on this problem should be addressed to
Steve Giddins, our Librarian and Archivist, using the 'Contact'
item in the menu on the left.